Those two pies are very representative of the range of variability in all of the pies that night.....and while I was often frustrated, everyone seemed to wolf down the pies.....at the end of the day that counts for something.

The carbon steel wok I have in my dome doesn't seem to be enough on its own, especially now that weather is getting colder.

This may be dumb, but I got a big bag of grill lava rocks, rinsed them well, air dried them and then packed as many as I could into the wok before affixing it back into the dome of my LBE. Hopefully this helps a little with the top heat issues.

To control one variable at a time, I'm gonna make some pizzas on Wednesday to see the impact, if any, of the lava rocks. After that I'll attach the air-foil/director I am constructing and see if I can get those cooking times down and a better overall top bake.

Probably should install a much thicker screw to hold the wok on as it is pretty heavy now. --K

If you beef up the screw, you could also fill in around the rocks with some play sand if you need a little more thermal mass.

CL

That's a good idea Craig. Thanks.

Although the weight may be heavy enough at that point to just get a really big screw, set it in place and use the wok as a mold to construct a refractory cement-perlite mix mold that would take the place of the wok in the dome. Who knows (I obviously don't)

What stinks about making pizza only about every 4-6 weeks is that I lose my rhythm a tad...my "touch". Akin to a drummer not being able to sit in the pocket as well as he could if he played more often.

This was a test bake of sorts. New 1" thick cordierite stone, lava rock filled wok in the roof, no additional air flow director. In the 22" grill size, I am now convinced it is impossible to get a dome mounted ash catcher, wok, pizza stone, etc hot enough to do really fast cook times in the LBE. In the dome, I've now fooled with the ash catcher, a cast iron skillet, a carbon steel wok and carbon steel wok with lava rocks and sand in it. Just not hot enough by itself and I wanted to prove if that was the case.

Next step is adding an air foil/directional attachment in addition with to the wok I already have in the dome. Chau's and Mmmph's LBE's have shown that by forcing air directly down onto the pizza, faster cooking times are possible. That's happening next bake.

Had some people over for pizza last night. It was 40°F outside by the time we cooked pizzas. Busy jamming out pizzas, I only got pictures of one pizza. My fussing to myself aside, they got eaten pretty quickly. All pizzas cooked between 3:05 and 3:25 and were getting a little tough on the outer shell. I think the air foil might dramatically drop cook times. We'll see in a few weeks at this rate.

Pics of a Bianco-Rosa from the pies last night (perhaps too many pistachios added a little too late in the bake....it was pitch black outside!). I didn't get pics, but the unquestionable hit with the people was the pizza most people questioned while making it, the Starita Limon: smoked mozzarella, sea salt, olive oil, freshly sliced lemons, basil and post-bake I added a little bit of Mike's Hot Honey to it. My first time adding MHH to this pizza and the sweet-spicy note it added helped make the flavors go off the chart.

I bet the air foil knocks a minute off of the cook times. I'll take 120 seconds at this point......would also allow me to cut down the percentage of malted flour I need to use in my formula with this application. It was fun to make pizza again...I miss not having as much time to make it.

Well, I have gone ahead and rushed into something that may be a debacle of sorts early on, but whaddya gonna do?

The Baltimore Farmers Market is, I would have to imagine, one of the larger farmers markets on the East Coast. I have been to the monster farmers market at Union Square in NYC (love it) and the market in DUMBO and the Baltimore Farmers Market is not too much smaller than those. On peak Sundays the organizers claim more than 8,000 people visit the market during the day. There can be a literal wall of people walking in and among the market at times. I go most Sundays to stock up on fresh produce, sundries, honey, etc and eat breakfast from one of the various prepared food stands there….it’s one of my favorite things to do in the city. It’s really a killer market and atmosphere.

Last year, for the first time, the market offered pizza from a mobile WFO joint called the Red Zebra. They decided very recently that they are not doing the market this year (I was told due to logistics), the market wanted to keep pizza as one of its food vendors and yours truly decided such a last minute call meant it was time to have a pizza stand at the city’s busiest market…..without me even having my LBE dialed in yet…..with me having made pizzas exactly three times since Thanksgiving…..with having an honest moment of clarity last week realizing that I’m just really not that good of a pizza maker….with the market opening April 1st. Ain’t life grand (or as we say in Bawlmer, Ain’t the beer cold!)?

Eff it, I just mailed in my application and check today to secure my 10’x10’ spot.

Obviously lots of experiments to do. I will not be open by April 1st and am targeting an opening at the market in May. I’ll mix 60 dough balls the first Sunday and work up from there as demand increases.

Gotta get a pop-up canopy and noodle the dough transportation. Given I don’t have a large car (station wagon is the largest of the two), I will likely need to use some coolers….either with 12”x12” greek tiles stacked somehow with the dough balls on them or having to put the dough balls in individual plastic containers, which I am not accustomed to but should not be a problem. There is not enough room to get the large Cambro box which can hold dough trays.

Obviously a lot more to get dialed in, not the least is finding a person to work the front of the stand, taking orders, handling money, etc. Getting someone dependable (and having back-ups) who will show up at 7am on a Sunday morning could be tricky. Already have some feelers out.

Hopefully by July 4th I’ll have worked out some of the kinks and gotten into being able to deliver a consistent product.

I don’t expect to deliver a product as good as what could be done in a WFO (or even what I was doing with my broiler) given I have changed my preferred formula for the LBE, but hopefully I can deliver a pizza that is respectable and worthy of consumption.

I’ll likely be offering just 2-4 regular pizzas (ideally 12”, but maybe 10” due to the format and storage concerns) to keep things simple and then also rotate in a weekly special on top of the regular offerings which will be announced via social media preceding the market.

Break a leg, dude. I will gladly help you with what ever on the propane fired LBE, MBE or what not. I think Chau will tell you I can help some. What is your first, biggest problem aside from the dough? Can we coax the people in with the Lemoncello shots?

Break a leg, dude. I will gladly help you with what ever on the propane fired LBE, MBE or what not. I think Chau will tell you I can help some. What is your first, biggest problem aside from the dough? Can we coax the people in with the Lemoncello shots?

Thanks.....I may indeed need some help.

Heat on the top of the pizza in my LBE is the major issue, but I've got a few test runs with a newer air foil to run that may solve the problem.

The limoncello shots will be available for select clientele.

I just got two 1.75L jugs of grain alcohol to whip up a big batch. --K

Logged

"It's Baltimore, gentlemen, the gods will not save you." --Burrell

scott123

Kelly, that's wonderful news. I have no doubt that you are going to kick ass at this endeavor.

I think that a big part of your consternation in the past wasn't because of lack of skills or knowledge, but that you were attempting something incredibly difficult- Neo on an LBE. It looks like you've gotten better results with the KAAP compromise. Since a slight move in a malted/NY direction has worked out well for you, how about embracing a 'NY State of Mind' wholeheartedly? Bromate, 3-4 minute bakes- the whole shebang?

Just an idea. You know what you're doing, and I completely trust that whatever you do will be wildly successful.

Kelly, forget about NP in the LBE. Do hybrid pies at 3-4m bakes. Thats what most ppl will want to eat. Let me know if I can help.

I'm at 3:45 to 4:05 if I use all Caputo, but the crust is far too white. That's where the air flow director may help (I hope).

The same result, albeit a little better, occurs with a 65-35 MC00-KABF mix, dittos for a 65-35 MC00-AT mix. The 100% KAAP batch I just did yielded a much better bake at between 3:00 and 3:30.

I like the flavor of the all Caputo or the Caputo mix more and hope the air director tests allow me to go that way. However, I am willing to compromise to a predominately KAAP or AT formula if that yields the better result, given the oven.

One day I will hopefully have a real wood-fired oven to cook in. And if the stars align right, it could very well be a monster of an oven at that.

scott123

The same result, albeit a little better, occurs with a 65-35 MC00-KABF mix, dittos for a 65-35 MC00-AT mix. The 100% KAAP batch I just did yielded a much better bake at between 3:00 and 3:30.

For 3-4 minutes, Full Strength runs circles around 00, KAAP, KABF and AT. The 00 could give you browning issues, the KAAP and KABF are in a good range of protein, but they lack bromate, and the AT, although it has bromate, is a little high on the protein scale. Chau can provide some more detail, but I believe pretty much all of his breathtaking NY slice magic was done with what I believe is a Full Strength analog, Sam's Club Baker & Chefs High Gluten Flour.

Between pulling a NP and a hybrid pie out of an LBE, the hybrid is just so much easier. If you can, to make the most out of the hybrid, it really helps to have a bromated flour.

And, while Chau does exceedingly well with his hand stretched mozz, if you have access to Grande or a good Grande clone you might want to consider it.

the KAAP and KABF are in a good range of protein, but they lack bromate

I'm not sure I need the bromate. My spring with the KAAP is acceptable and even earlier days of my pizzamaking when I was using KABF I never had a problem with spring. In addition, while I know I am often eating bromated flours at commercial pizzerias, I would prefer not to use it when making my own pizzas.

and the AT, although it has bromate, is a little high on the protein scale.

I agree on the protein, good point. Even at just half of the mix (I tried a 50-50 MC00-AT blend), the extensibility was impacted quite a bit....even with a long fermentation. I formed the dough balls much too tight in that batch, cause the proof itself was 10 hours. The texture was also a little stiff. I will make a 75-25 KAAP-AT mix tomorrow and tool around a few percentage points if the mix shows promise.

A food service distributor in my area sells the unbromated/unbleaced All Trumps flour and I have been using that in my experiments.

The hybrid is the way to go. And while I was initially desiring the sub 2 minute bakes in my LBE that I was achieving with my all-broiler method, I am beginning to see the hybrid is the way to go. But I want the pies to lean more towards Napply-Don in style than NY-Style. Just a personal preference.

And, while Chau does exceedingly well with his hand stretched mozz, if you have access to Grande or a good Grande clone you might want to consider it.

Yes, I am able to buy the buckets of Grande Ovoline...the perfect size at a 4oz ball...just hand shred an entire ball and you have a great amount for one margherita. They come in three pound buckets, with two buckets comprising one sales unit (a box). At the price point I get it at, it works out to $1.11 worth of mozzarella on each pizza.

If I had time I would prefer to run up to the farm I like in PA and purchase raw milk from them and make mozzarella in the traditional manner (make your own curds, no shocking with citric acid, etc), but I don't have the time.

All of the flours have been impacted by inflationary concerns since summer. I was getting 55# bags of Caputo Pizzeria for $31 previously and now they are $36.50 per bag. Still not too bad.

Tinkering to do and I will certainly consider your thoughts Scott......nothing is out of the realm of possibility at this point.

Bad bake tonight. Propane freezing in the tank as it got to about 1/3 full. Also, for some reason my stone takes forever to come up to temperature on random occasions.

I'm abandoning my SP-10 propane cooker. Quite frankly, I'm peeved at myself for not following my gut when purchasing it. It is better to have too much heat and not need some of it than to want more heat and not have it available. I should have purchased the KAB4 at that time.

So tomorrow I am likely going to order the Bayou Classic KAB4 (Kick-A-Banjo) with the 30psi regulator and 210,000 BTU output.

But.....I have some questions for the fellas at Bayou Classic about the SP40 (Double Jet) with the optional 40psi regulator. I've heard rumor that allows the SP40 to kick out over 250,000 BTUs. The drain on propane may be too taxing to make it a viable alternative from an operational standpoint at the farmers market, but it's tempting.

So yes, I need to tinker with directional air foils more, but since I am using a larger Weber grill (22.5") and the issue is always going to be about heat, why not just get a burner that puts out more of it? Gotta be one part of the equation me thinks. --K

Did two 100% Caputo pies with a minimal "LBE White Ring" on the crust and very nice browning in 2:32 and 2:35 lsat night. Stone at launch was 730°F both bakes. One more tweak to see if I can get to two minutes (two...minutes...to miiidnight...!) tonight.